wOOt!

I work at a software development company and, like many high tech establishments, we have a great deal deal of cultural diversity. It helps that we have offices in England, France, Holland, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

Several times in the past week concerned project managers have come to me to get the WC schedule. They are concerned about the impact the WC will have on the availabilty of certain members of their teams. And the savvy project managers are also concerned about the outcome of the games and its affect on morale.

Meanwhile, many (but not all) of the Americans are somehow unaware. But working here has opened up whole new worlds to them - World Cup chatter is unavoidable in our office.

Only yesterday five or six of us were hanging around this one guy's desk - envious of his upcoming vacation plans because he is going to Germany for the World Cup - when the conversation turned to "Who do you think will win?" The usual suspects were mentioned: Brazil, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Brazil, Brazil, Italy, England (the Brit kept saying he was serious, Eng-er-land was taking the cup. )

To our surprise a couple of non-soccer types spoke up and started asking questions - how many teams, how often is World Cup, who is on the teams, how do they pick the teams, etc. One guy confessed that he didn't even know that the US played soccer until he started working with us. Then one of the managers asked how we all 'knew' Brazil was most likely to win, and was this the 1st World Cup the US will be in.

Just then one of the guys from Pakistan - land of Cricket - walked by. We stopped him and asked "Who's going to win the World Cup?" - Brazil was the unhesitating response. "Who are you cheering for?" Saudi Arabia.

The conversation quickly turned to discussions of where to watch the games. Then the plans for long lunches, and finally, could we set up a TV over by the developers area?

LINKS

Have you heard that broadcasts will be available in several languages right here in the US?
Checkout Dish Networks for details.

The Guardian - a UK review
http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/comment/story/0%2C%2C1786908%2C00.html

Brian Ching- US National Team Player - has a blog site.
http://blogs.chron.com/brianching

Rock The Crossbar blog -
http://rockthecrossbar.blogspot.com/

Chicago Sun has an article about Soccer transcending sport - preach on brother!
http://www.suntimes.com/output/telander/cst-spt-rick07.html

Stop the madness - England is getting all PC about flags
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006250446,00.html